Optimal Strategies for Your Residency Application, with a focus on Child Neurology and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities - May 22

Join us for this AAMC-hosted Specialty Spotlight webinar featuring Child Neurology, a participating specialty in the ERAS® application process. During this session, ERAS applicants and medical school advisors will hear directly from a Child Neurology program director and advisor who will share key insights, helpful practices, and valuable resources to support preparation for the 2025-2026 application season.

Richard Peng
Director, Outreach and Engagement, ERAS Program, AAMC

Richard Peng is a Director for ERAS Outreach and Engagement. He was previously a manager for that team. Before joining Outreach and Engagement, he was an ERAS Senior Account Relationship Management Specialist, a Lead Program Relations Specialist and a Training Senior Specialist. After 10 years with the AAMC he has a deep and thorough understanding of the ERAS systems, an appreciation for the needs of individuals across medical education and a desire to ensure that they receive timely and accurate information and guidance.

Aaron Nelson, MD MBS FAAP FAAN FCNS
Director, Child Neurology Residency Training Program, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Clinical Professor, Department of Neurology, NYU Langone Health
Director of Epilepsy, Bellevue Hospital

Dr. Aaron Nelson is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology at NYU Langone Health, Director of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine Child Neurology Residency Training Program, and Director of Epilepsy for New York Health + Hospitals’ Bellevue Hospital. 

A first-generation physician, Dr. Nelson trained in zoological neuroscience at Michigan State University, obtained his MD and MBS in Molecular Neuroscience from the Mayo Clinic, and completed pediatrics at UMDNJ, child neurology at Columbia, and clinical neurophysiology at NYU Langone Health. Starting the pediatric epilepsy monitoring program at Bellevue Hospital–the nation's oldest continuously operating hospital–he now directs the flagship adult and pediatric epilepsy program for New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation–the largest public health care system in the United States. Child neurology residency program director at NYU since 2014, he is actively involved in a variety of nationally-recognized endeavors pushing the envelope in neurologic education. Recipient of multiple local and national teaching awards, Dr. Nelson has more than 20 peer-reviewed publications on topics ranging from education to epilepsy. He serves on multiple national committees for a variety of professional organizations and has been elected Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Neurology, and the Child Neurology Society.

Miya Bernson-Leung MD, EdM
Director, Child Neurology Residency Training Program, Boston Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Medical Director of Continuing Education, Boston Children’s Hospital Center for Educational Excellence and Innovation

Dr. Miya Bernson-Leung is Program Director of the Child Neurology Residency Training Program at Boston Children's Hospital and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, where she is the Child Neurology Specialty Advisor. She majored in neuroscience at Harvard College and obtained her MD at Harvard Medical School. She completed pediatrics residency in the Boston Combined Residency in Pediatrics and child neurology residency at Boston Children’s Hospital. She pursued a fellowship in pediatric stroke and cerebrovascular disorders, and seeks to improve the care of these complex patients through multidisciplinary inpatient and outpatient care and through education including the innovative and impactful Pediatric Stroke Champions Course. Following her clinical training, she earned her Master's in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a Zuckerman Fellow of the Center for Public Leadership. She is a clinician-educator and leader across the continuum of education including serving as core faculty for the preclinical Mind/Brain/Behavior course, as residency program director since 2020, and as the Medical Director of Continuing Education for Boston Children’s Hospital which was recently awarded Reaccreditation with Commendation, the highest level of Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education. She is active regionally and nationally in promoting neurology education, including as an inaugural editorial board member of the journal Neurology:Education and an active member of the American Academy of Neurology’s Consortium of Neurology Program Directors and the Child Neurology Society’s Program Director Forum. Her invited commentary entitled “Child Neurology Workforce Shortage: Challenges and Recommendations for Researching and Recruiting the Next Generation of Child Neurologists,” co-written with a former student mentee, was recently accepted to the Annals of the Child Neurology Society. She is also active within the AAMC including as the former Northeast regional representative to the AAMC’s Continuing Professional Development Section and developer/speaker for multiple regional and national workshops.

Miya Asato MD, FAAN, FCNS, FAAP
Vice President of Training, Program Director Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Miya Asato is Vice President of Training at Kennedy Krieger Institute and Program Director of the Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD) Residency Training Program. She is Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and holds the Arnold J. Capute MD MPH Chair in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. Dr. Asato attended Tufts University where she completed studies in Occupational Therapy and worked in rehabilitation settings prior to attending medical school at Jefferson Medical College. Her training in pediatrics and child neurology was at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in developmental cognitive neuroscience and then was awarded a K23 award from NINDS to study the impact of childhood epilepsy on the developing brain using neuroimaging. As research faculty, she served as Program Director for NDD at UPMC for over a decade. She was recruited to Kennedy Krieger in 2021 and is Program Director for NDD, for which there are now 11 accredited programs. She is also Director of the Maternal Child Health Bureau Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Program, which provides multidisciplinary training to health and education professionals to build the workforce to serve children with disabilities. As a medical educator, she is active within numerous professional organizations, has contributed to the ACGME NDD residency milestones and is a member of the American Academy of Neurology Clinical Guidelines Committee.